Best Form of Revit Education

[wshammond]

I'm in a firm of long time CAD structural engineers, and we are at the point of realization that we need to become well versed in Revit in order to provide our services through both programs. 

I'm looking for the opinion of the best course of action in terms of education (training videos, 3-day training events, etc.). Infinite skills is the only somewhat legitimate looking online/video education that I have found. Obviously any kind of online or video training will be significantly cheaper than going to one of these training events in person.

Thoughts, comments, opinions? Any and all are much appreciated. 

[itbemedg]

I went to a 2 day Revit class offered by our autocad retailer. It basically explained some of the structural side of Revit. Pretty basic with hands on. They gave out a structural tutorial workbook that went along with the course.

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I also purchased the 2012 Ininite Skills CDs - this was when 2014 had just come out and no '14 CDs were available yet. The 2012 CDs have quite a bit of information in them if you buy both the basic and advanced CDs ($75 for both on Amazon) Since I had just bought 2012, I got a deal on 2014 but since it's a relatively new release, the '12 CDs would be a good purchase because they cover a lot more ground.

I really liked having the CDs sitting on my desktop when I did my first Revit project. If I needed to do something that I needed help with, I could just click the CD on and go to that chapter and watch them do what I needed to do. Pretty helpful especially considering that I was the only one at our office working in Revit. Between the CDs and bulletin boards, I can find an answer to just about any question. IMHO, I think for the price, the Infinite Skills CDs are a good buy and a good place to start learning.

[Archimedes314]

Ask your most nimble-minded person to take on a small project using REVIT.  Of course, a quick introduction to the concepts is necessary to get started - Grids as planes, all views are equivalent to clipped 3D viewports in AutoCAD, etc.  Give him the time to learn by doing - there just isn't any better way than this.  He will need to watch a lot of Youtube videos, and research stuff online, but after he's done he can show the next person how to do it.  Really, it's by doing work in it, that you figure out how to use it.  Quite often the classes are taught by people who don't actually use the software in a prodution environment, so they focus on the wrong things.  Several features of REVIT are just a waste of time, and some of the least sexy things have tons of applications once you re-think the way you create documentation.

[VWD-MLM]

I agree.......the best way is to roll up your sleves and go...I learned how to use it (many moons ago), by completely replicating a 25k sf High school in RAC that I had just completed using ADT.  Gave me something to compare with as far as the actual Bldg Model.  after about half an hour, I knew I'd never want to go back to ADT.......and I haven't.  Been 7 years now.  You tube tutorials helped some, but diggin in and 'playing' was the best way for me.

Good luck.

[KateMorricalTowne]

If you have NEVER used Revit, a hands-on live instructor-led class is great. For continuing ed, the online courses are good. CADLearning/4D Technologies has good stuff too, as does Global eTraining.

But if you can, time your live training for close to the beginning of your first project. Training is like a foreign language...use it or lose it...